


Second Chances

by salable_mystic



Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Getting Back Together, M/M, New Zealand, Post-breakup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 05:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17258330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salable_mystic/pseuds/salable_mystic
Summary: New Zealand, later... .





	Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Vampirebitch as part of the Viggorli Xmas Secret Santa over on Dreamwidth  
> (viggorli_xmas.dreamwidth.org)

.  
  


The drive south from Christchurch International Airport had first been filled with pleasantries and then longer and longer spells of silence, which Orlando filled by studying the man driving the car, whom he had not seen in months, and been alone with in … it must be years, now. Part of him had yearned desperately to see him again – the other part had seriously doubted (was _still_ rather insistently doubting, if he was being honest) that coming here had been a good idea.

The silence was finally broken by the older man, who startled Orlando out of his thoughts when he asked: “So, do you think coming back to New Zealand was a good idea?”

“Gosh, I don’t know, Viggo.“ Orlando smirked, pushing his heavy thoughts aside, blinking into the bright summer sunshine that was bathing the landscape outside their car in its warm glow, “stay in cold, dark, rainy England for Christmas, or come here? What a hard choice to make.”

“Well, there’s also LA … .”

“Yeah, LA, with its glam parties and endless networking opportunities – not exactly what one might consider a ‘holiday getaway’.”

Viggo could hear the annoyance creep into Orlando’s tone, and was quick to backpedal, “All right, all right … I was just thinking that it’s been a while since we were here last, together, and … not all your memories of that time might be good ones. That’s all.”

Orlando frowned, and shifted his gaze from the landscape outside the car to its driver. “We’re talking about this now, are we? Really?”

Viggo shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road. “Better do it now, rather than leave it to maybe fester and …”. He shrugged again. “… you know. It’s only you and me and a cabin in the hills above Queenstown for the next two weeks, so … better get it out now, if there is anything to get out, before we leave civilization behind us.”

Orlando shook his head and chuckled, “Yeah, right … all of a ten minute drive behind us, not to mention that we’ll be enjoying such civilized luxuries as, I don’t know, electricity, running water, … .” He stopped, and threw a suspicious glance at the other man, “Waaait … there _will_ _be_ such … luxuries … as hot running water and electricity, right? You’re not literally dragging me into the wilderness, are you? Because if that is the case, then I might really reconsider spending this holiday season with you!”

Viggo shook his head, fond. “So the prospect of trying to revisit and talk about our complicated past is not enough to scare you off, but the prospect of having to do without ready-heated warm water is?” He paused. “But, yes, have no fear – all the modern amenities will be provided. There might even be phone reception and internet. I do remember our one camping trip – quite vividly, to be honest – I thought I’d never hear the end of it.”

Orlando smirked, but played along. “All it did was rain. For five days. My sleeping bag was soggy for the entire trip. So yeah … once was … once too often, to be honest. So, yes, that’d be a hard no on the camping front. My poor back.”

Viggo reached over the steering console and briefly touched Orlando’s thigh, while also sparing him a glance. He withdrew again quickly but added: “I know. No damp bedding, muddy camping gear, dripping tents, I promise.”

Orlando huffed, “Well, good. Glad to hear it, old man.”

They drove a while in heavy silence, concentrating on the road and watching the landscape pass by, respectively, neither really knowing what to add or where to go in the conversation.

It was Orlando who finally decided to make the best of Viggo’s opening and went back to the subject that was sitting so heavily between them.

“As for the other thing …” he shrugged, “the way I figure it, neither of us was in a place where we really could make good decisions, you know? We both got tangled up and turned around by how popular the movies were becoming, I was overwhelmed by thoughts of what my future might bring or be, scared of taking too many chances, of making the wrong choices, of going against what was expected of me, …” he trailed off and shrugged, somewhat helplessly.

“… and I was feeling my own mortality too much, time slipping by, and was unwilling to give you the time you needed to find yourself.” Viggo sighed, “I know I wasn’t a very good friend to you there, at the end –” he snorted, scornfully, “- let alone lover.”

Orlando shook his head. “No, that’s not true. You just – you saw things clearer than I did.”

Viggo shook his head, “I really, really didn’t – I was just so scared of losing you to Hollywood and the mainstream and all the streamlined expectations that you would need or want to fulfill and … I was selfish, Orlando.”

Orlando snorted, “Yeah, right … maybe. I mean, sure, maybe you were – but you were also _right_. I mean, just look at what the last decade has done to me, were I’ve ended up.”

“Wildly successful and with a lovely child?”

“Yeah, ok – fair. But also drifting and divorced, and with the acute sense that I lost myself somewhere along the way, that all that is left of me is a façade, and there’s no-one home inside my mind behind all the layers of expectations and trying to fulfill everyone’s ideas of who they think I ought to be.”

Viggo’s gaze had been flickering between Orlando and the road throughout the other man’s speech, and now he said slowly, hesitantly, “Orlando … .”

Orlando shrugged, “It’s all right, really. It’s not as bad as that made it sound – not anymore, at any rate. It was – I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t good for a while there, but … but I do feel as if I am slowly finding myself again – reconnecting to who I was, who I thought I could be, who I wanted to be, before …well, before I became ‘famous me’,” he paused, and then went on, hesitantly, “I mean … I’m here, aren’t I? That has to count for something, doesn’t it?”

“That’s something only you can answer for yourself, Orlando. I mean, …” Viggo shrugged and snorted, somewhat bitterly, “past me would have said ‘yes, of course it counts!’ in a heartbeat, but I’m trying not to make the same mistakes again.”

Orlando nodded. “And I can, I do, appreciate that. I’ll try to do the same thing … and not repeat my mistakes from a decade ago, either, I mean.”

Viggo smiled at him from the driver’s seat, ruefully. “That’s good then. Though we _are_ staying in a cabin that’s rather far from civilization – so _this time_ I would have time to catch up with you, at any rate.”

Orlando chuckled and relaxed into his seat, feeling some of his tension and second thoughts drain away from him. “Yeah, no, ok, we’re definitely doing this. Two weeks in a cabin, I mean. I’m no longer worried.”

“Oh?” Viggo asked, “were you? And what changed your mind?”

Orlando shook his head. “Was I nervous? Well, yeah. I mean, here we are, haven’t really been alone for any amount of time in about a decade, didn’t part on good terms when we last _did_ spend a substantial amount of time alone together, with a ton of unresolved issues between us – and then there, out of the blue, is your invitation to come spend two weeks, over Christmas and New Year’s no less, in a mountain cabin in New Zealand with you. Wouldn’t you be nervous?”

Viggo spared him another long glance, before focusing back on the highway. “If you put it like that, it does sound somewhat … sketchy.” He hummed, “Why did you come, then? And why are you no longer nervous?”

At that, Orlando sat up straight, focusing incredulous eyes on Viggo. “You have to ask me that, really? You, of all people? _Of course_ I came! I’ve been regretting leaving you behind for the last decade – of course I came. For … you know,” Orlando swallowed, “for hope, or for closure or …” he shrugged, helplessly, “because you asked, really. I mean … how could I _not_?” he added somewhat desperately, helplessly.

At that, Viggo’s hand snaked across the middle console again, and this time, when he had touched his fingers to Orlando’s thigh, he didn’t move them away.

“I still regret letting you go, all those years ago. That’s why I asked, of course – I figured that, if you said no, I could finally move on. And if you said yes … well, to be honest, I didn’t actually want to get my hopes up, so I didn’t really have a plan for what I would do if you said yes … and then once you _did_ say yes, I didn’t want to … you know … turn in the person I was in our relationship a decade ago. Didn’t want to put any expectations on you. So …” he shrugged.

“Yeah. So.”

“So I promise not to give you more advice on your life and your career than you explicitly ask for.”

“And I promise that I won’t just vanish into the night, without telling you in person that I am leaving.”

Viggo sighed, heavily, and then smirked in an attempt to move the conversation into less fraught waters. “Good, then. In that case, I might even reconsider my plan of sleeping with the car keys on a chain around my neck.”

Orlando, glad for the lighter turn the mood in the car was taking, decided to play along. “And I might even tell you that I am seriously considering taking up the role of Edward in a post-modern take on a re-make of _Twilight_ that’s being discussed.”

Orlando was watching closely, and could see Viggo mentally evaluating and discarding a dozen answers, before he cautiously said, “Really? That’s … uh … sounds … interesting.” He paused, and hesitantly added, “Do you … want to run pros and cons by me?”

At that, Orlando cracked up, laughing. “Just admit it, you hate the very thought, old man.”

“I …” Viggo swallowed, “Yes, ok, fine, I do! I do! But if that’s what you think you want to do, I’ll be … happy for you.”

Orlando felt bad for teasing him – a little. Enough to reach up and squeeze Viggo’s hand with his own, if not enough to stop this avenue of conversation.

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Viggo huffed. “You’d better, elf boy. _Twilight_.”

Orlando smirked, but, glancing across the car at Viggo, the smirk softened into a fond smile. “Thank you for not immediately vetoing my considering the role. I know how much you must hate the idea. So I do appreciate that. And … I’ll be there every morning, in return. No more vanishing into the night.”

Viggo sighed. “Thank you. I – I do appreciate that. I do.”

Viggo’s hand slowly, hesitantly, turned around on Orlando’s thigh, until is back rested on the younger man’s cloth-covered leg, and his palm was touching Orlando’s. Equally slowly, Orlando tangled his fingers with Viggo’s, until they were holding hands.

There were still a million issues to sort out between them and not everything had been touched on yet, let alone mended, and who only knew what the future would bring – but, Orlando was certain, this time, when they said they would face it together, they actually _would do it_. Together. As they always should have been but had been too blind or afraid to see.

Well, Orlando could see life a lot more clearly now than he could a decade ago – and he was, finally, no longer afraid.

As long as he had Viggo and Viggo had him, there was no need for it, after all.

.


End file.
